This fast-growing business wanted to gain improved visibility of key financial information, but its systems were letting it down. It chose to work with Prevail to drive forward process and system changes that would enhance the real-time information available to the business and put it in a much better position to drive growth.
Pas Safe Solutions is a fast-growing energy efficiency business based in Walton Summit Centre near Preston, Lancashire. Founded in 2020, the business specialises in the supply of ventilation, insulation, internal wall, room-in-roof and eco-ancillary products, heat pumps and eco advice and support.
Choosing to work with Prevail
As a fast-growing business, Pas Safe Solutions needed to strike a new balance between maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit that had powered business growth of 300% over the 2023-2024 financial year, whilst also needing to impose a structure and order on its operations that would create the right conditions for future growth. A series of problematic IT investments had compounded these challenges and led Pas Safe Solutions’ leadership team to seek external expertise.
Ashley Brown, Founder and Managing Director at Pas Safe Solutions, explains, “We spoke with a number of management accountancy practices and Financial Directors in our search for someone who could help us with our systems and financial management. Prevail Accountancy stood out as a vibrant breath of fresh air.”
Very familiar with the challenges faced by fast-growing businesses, Ashley Brown was keen to put in place effective systems and processes without losing the firm’s dynamism or startup spirit.
Problematic IT investments
“We’d invested in some very expensive systems which were apparently going to help us on our journey, but they were not performing as we wanted,” reflects Kevin.
Problems with the incumbent IT system meant that essential business reporting was lacking. Information in the Xero finance system wasn’t trusted and was continually checked against multiple spreadsheets. The business had no visibility of stock and a poor understanding of profit centres. Worse, the highly manual workarounds were leading to mistakes. It became important to act before a blame culture or system paralysis could set in.
“Selecting Prevail felt like a punt,” admits Ashley. “But I also knew it was much lower risk than employing someone. If it didn’t work out, we could easily walk away. Hiring a full-time employee would have been a lot more expensive, and there’s no guarantee they have the right set of skills. Working with Prevail is a lot more ‘plug and play’.”
Ashley continues, “The other option, of course, is to hire a part-time Finance Director, but I’ve found that while they’re happy to talk to you, they rarely want to get their hands dirty. This would be a problem for us, given the system’s challenges we had.”
First priority: Optimising Xero
Prevail has extensive, award-winning experience in guiding businesses through the digital transformation of their finance operations, and Pas Safe Solutions leant into this expertise. It began with a deep dive to understand the current state of the business, with Prevail working alongside the existing team to support and coach them.
“The big difference we’ve noticed with Prevail is that they have got stuck into the detail of our business. I haven’t had to get involved a great deal, which is quite different from my experience elsewhere,” admits Kevin. “Prevail pointed themselves in the right direction and have made the right sort of impact. Prevail has done a lot of the firefighting, really. It’s just enabled us. We’re very pleased we took them on.”
Initial work focused on improving data quality and eliminating the numerous Excel spreadsheets used to control purchases, sales orders and tracking. This included a review of the Xero finance system to cleanse existing data, ensure that staff are confident using the system and that future data entry is high quality and correct, and reporting is accurate and reliable. At the same time, an automated pre-accounting workflow was implemented using Dext, eliminating the manual data entry processes for purchase orders and supplier statements.
The Pas Safe Solutions team now has all financial information available in one place, with products displayed by range and profitability. It can now track the profitability of each product group. The work has improved real-time visibility of operations, management reporting and financial planning.
Furthermore, individual process improvements have streamlined efforts and delivered significant time savings. For example, by removing the need to check multiple spreadsheets, the order process was reduced from 20 minutes to 2.5 minutes. The team is exceptionally pleased with the results, and the leadership team is now confident that the right financial management systems and processes are in place.
Further enhancements: Stock and warehouse management
When Pas Safe Solutions announced the opening of a new warehouse tabled for June 2024, it became clear that a new stock management system was required. Prevail shortlisted, recommended and introduced the Unleashed inventory management software within weeks. With Prevail and the Pas Safe Solutions team working together, this was rapidly implemented.
“We’ve not had any problems or backlash, even dealing with tricky things like systems, process and culture change,” Kevin emphasises. “I think that’s because our team all understand that Prevail is striving to get it right for our business, and that speaks volumes. You can’t argue with someone who cares, can you?”
To further enhance the management information available to the leadership team, Prevail oversaw the implementation of Fathom, a Xero integration which displays key reporting, analysis and forecast data in intuitive dashboards.
The solution was integrated with the Xero accountancy software for joined-up reporting across the business operations. Financial reporting now includes complete visibility of stock levels. Additional effort was made by the Prevail team to pull in supplementary data from Unleashed into the Fathom dashboards to ensure that all salient information is prepared in a usable format, ready to be discussed at board meetings.
Ashley Brown, Cofounder and Director at Pas Safe Solutions, enthuses, “We love the passion we get from Prevail – they have transformed our systems and analytics and have passionately engaged with the many issues our new company has faced.”
Extending digital transformation to sales operations
The next stage of Pas Safe Solutions’ digital transformation was for Prevail to lead the implementation of a new CRM system designed for wholesalers, Prospect CRM. Again, Prevail worked closely with the incumbent team to ensure a rapid and successful implementation, understanding individual needs and offering support and coaching.
Deano Tsimboykas, Cofounder and Director at Pas Safe Solutions, confirms, “Prevail makes things happen – and for the better of everything. They deal with things head-on in a very practical and hands-on way.”
The automation of sales processes has delivered time back to the business and automated alerts helps to ensure all customer enquiries are followed up in a timely way. Sales managers can profile customers based on their purchase activity to focus their efforts accordingly. New dashboards provide essential real-time visibility of active opportunities, sales, customer champions and other key sales metrics. The business is now in a much better position to develop an e-commerce offering in the future.
Additional work by the Prevail team enabled integration with the Xero financial and Unleashed warehouse management systems, adding additional benefit. For example, access to Unleashed data gives the sales team visibility of stock levels.
Work is ongoing to tailor and define key performance indicators and reporting requirements, but the leadership team recognises that they are in a much better place. This includes access to real-time dashboards as well as reports for sales tracking, customer management, customer penetration and orders per month.
Optimising change and driving continuous improvement
Pas Safe Solutions can now access a new set of management reports which deliver an overview of business performance – something the Pas Safe leadership team simply didn’t have before. Stock levels have been optimised and customer satisfaction has risen by 80 percent. The company’s growth remains high at 250 per cent over the last financial year, with bonuses for every employee.
Ashley says, “Between five and ten million turnover, you are dealing with attrition; plugging the gaps to ensure things don’t slip through. After ten million, you’re into the realms where you can’t possibly control everything, so you’re looking for snapshots of performance that restore some of that control back to you. Prevail has helped us to put solutions in place to deal with attrition and bring greater control.”
“Now, Prevail is helping us with the fine-tuning and future readiness. They alerted us to our system’s transaction limit. A few years ago, 2,000 transactions were the stuff of dreams. Now, we are already planning what happens when we reach the limit. Our modelling suggests we will reach it quickly, and Prevail has been proactive on it. I don’t think anyone else would have that mindset. Prevail has really got under the skin of our business and is attuned to our growth and what we need to do.”
A vision for the future with Prevail
“Arguably, we could have finished this partnership by now, but we think there is a lot more Prevail can do. There is a direction of travel we want to continue to explore, so we will be maintaining the relationship,” Ashley says. “The experience with Prevail has been very important to us. It’s helped us to keep the wind behind our sails and continue our growth trajectory.”
He continues, “The Prevail approach goes beyond customer centricity. It’s about business-owner centricity. They aren’t afraid to tell you what you need to hear, even if you might not like it.”
“You have a choice,” Ashley concludes. “Do you want years of heartache and stress, or do you want to emerge from that high-growth phase actually having enjoyed the process? Dropping in on Prevail to support your business and your team will help you to enjoy the journey. Every ambitious, growing business needs a Prevail. Well, more simply, they need Prevail.”
Is it your time to Prevail?
Do you need advice on how to prepare your business for future growth? Would you like support with the digital transformation of your financial operations? Or perhaps you simply need help to improve the financial reporting in your business?
We can assist.
Call Prevail today on: 01706 550 825.